mE

I am a 27 year old social worker and doctoral student working on improving my fitness. This blogs is a place for me to write about my experiences with fitness and fitness communities as a fat , feminist woman with disabilities. Sometimes things might go off the topic of fitness but that is the general theme.

Posts Tagged ‘zombies 5K’

Finally wearing one of my Fat Girls’ Guide to Running shirts for a run. Also Blake thinks stretching time is play time. And he tried attacking my yoga mat and some paper towels in addition to me while I was stretching!

So this was a Week 5, Workout 2 Run with the Zombies 5K app. Having been over a week since my Week 5, Workout 1 Run. I was pretty much totally inactive this past week 😦

A factor of fatigue, moreso depression, and a little side of other things to focus on- the last one being a good thing! I got a call Tuesday for a job interview Thursday, which meant running out Wednesday night with my mom who bought me some new interview clothes. Cross your fingers for me (pray, send good vibes, whatever) that something works out job wise soon! I need the income!

So despite the fact that it’s been a week since I did any running, I only got a few hours of sleep today and was exhausted, ate dinner at a birthday party for my uncle where my “dinner” was potato chips and a tiny bit of fruit* so not the most nutritious meal, and my even before I started out for a run my feet were very sore- actually my Plantar fasciitis has been particularly bad pretty much all week, despite all this I had pretty high aspirations for this run.

Side note about my dinner: *somehow I don’t like pretty much any of the main foods my family has for these types of things. You would think growing up with these foods I would, but no. Almost every family get together my whole life has involved things like potato salad, macaroni salad, and some weird jello dishes- though none of that last today- and I have never liked any of them.

I feel like a lot of the time I am limited more by my mind and thinking than I am by my physical abilities. For running and lifting, I know often the biggest hurdle for a lifting PR is getting over the “omg, that is so heavy, I can’t do that!” thoughts. So I had it in my head that sticking to the run, walk intervals is probably holding me back to less than I am capable of so why not just go out with a plan to run the whole time (minus warm up and cool down), and see how long I can do it if I’m not thinking ahead to “when is my next walking interval?”

But I decided to still play the Week 5 Run 2 program and I would try to just keep running through instead of slowing down after the 5 minute warm up walk.

Yeah, so that definitely didn’t happen! I started my 5 minute run and was just feeling miserable. Barely moving and stopped a few times because I kept getting tangled in my headphone cords, and then my ankles are itching a ton for some reason. I barely make it through the 5 minute run so I give up on my idea that I’m running the whole time. Do my intervals, which started at with the first few running minutes so slowly dragging myself, but I felt like I could move better by the latter ones. This seems to be a trend for me recently, is instead of getting progressively worse as I get more tired and sore as I would expect I actually get a big better as I adjust back into it I guess.

Oh, I almost forgot about the rats! So according to my one neighbor and the local facebook group I’m in, we have a huge rat problem here. Prior to tonight though I had seen one dead rat a few houses down on a previous run once and that’s it. And I wonder how much people exaggerate the problem, especially after facebook posts with dead animals that are likely gophers or other larger rodents who are posted as evidence of how bad the rats are because look how huge they get!

But today I saw another dead rat on the sidewalk, right about the same place as I had previously. Poor rat 😦

Then later one during my walk/run intervals I saw what looked like two rats running between trash bins.

Anyways, back to the running. Was really not feeling good about how the run was going through when it came time for the first 10 minute run. One thing I decided to do this time was not look at the time on my phone and try to pay as little attention to the time as possible. Though in this case I found the zombies storyline demotivating. I’m trying to get into it and Dr. Myers mentions how I should be able to see my destination ahead up that hill. Trying to visualize that I was just like “fuck that, I can’t make it!” then I decided to stop thinking about the zombies run story and realized that I think the main issue is I don’t run on a very hilly route, so when I’m not feeling good about my running as is, imagining that I’m actually heading up hill for the 10 minutes was not helping.

Instead though, last run I paid more attention to landmarks and were I ended up at each point. So I focused on the approximate distance, since it was the same route, rather than thinking about the storyline or the time goals.

And it was a lot easier focusing on distance! Because time creeps by so slow when I’m running, 1 minute feels like an hour! But distance feels more concrete. I don’t feel like I’ve gone several blocks when I am only halfway down one. So focusing on the restaurant I was probably going to hit the 10 minutes at instead made it a bit easier.

Then was stretching and back to running. I actually felt like I got into a groove with it in the last 10 minute run. Like I was incredibly slow, but I just felt like I was in a groove and not having to think about and force each step. Again, distance felt more concrete to me than time. When Dr. Myers interrupts to say I’m 5 minutes I started thinking “are you friggin kidding me!? How could that have only been 5 minutes!?” Even though I was blocks from where I was expecting to end the 10 minutes and knowing that hadn’t been thinking prior to the time update that I was closer than a few blocks from finishing the 10 minutes. Though I got distracted and stopped a few times toward the end of the second run because I saw what I think were bats in the sky and I stopped to see if I could tell if they were bats or not. I mean- it was night and dark out, birds don’t fly at night right? But then, they way they were flying looked more like birds to me. Though I’m no expert and I can’t recall every having clearly seen bats fly in person before, so what the heck do I know!

They were flying around one of the big billboards here with lights so I could see them- I’ve read bats will tend to be around bright lights because the light attracts bugs, bats eat bugs. Whatever they were the undersides of their wings looked almost reflective from my angle, was cool.

I like bats personally, they are cute and they eat bugs, and I hate bugs. The more bats the better imo.

So then walked back home. My feet hurt so bad by the time I got in the house!

Stretched, made some fries, and then drew this picture for this post:

Inspired by the rats I saw and the possible bats here is a rat who is supposed to be jogging, with bats flying in the background. I’m not good at cartoony drawings, nor am I great with rat physiology. Still I like it and think it’s cute! 🙂

She can be my own personally running mascot! And with those hairy legs she should be right at home for a feminist blog, right?

Now I’m going to celebrate by watching the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead! Which I only ever started liking zombie stuff because of the zombies, Run! app. I always found zombies boring and gross before. Still not a huge zombie fan, but Zombies, Run! definitely makes it more interesting than other zombie stories imo.

Since my last time running I’ve been doing some reading about Pose Running as well as more about Chi Running. I did a Tai Chi group fitness thing at the fitness center in undergrad way back when in undergrad and looking into Chi Running more I’ve been thinking it might help to start doing more Tai Chi again. I’ve been doing a little bit of what I could remember recently, though I don’t remember too much of the little bit I learned.

Maybe helped a little bit because as I started out on my warm up walk, after 10 minutes of Yoga, and felt more than before the feeling of being pulled forward some. So that was good. Then after the 5 minute warm up walk, I moved into 5 minutes of running. But I had trouble controlling my speed with the pulling forward feeling, and couldn’t maintain the speed it had me at, so I ended up not being able to keep that feeling either.

I also still suck at telling how long I’ve been running. 2 minutes into the run Dr. Myers says “good job…” and I’m like ‘cool, 5 minutes done…’ until she continues with saying I have done 2 out of the 5 minutes. Not until after that that I realized how stupid I am- I’ve been running the same route recently and the 5 minute warm up walk then 5 minutes running takes me past the cemetery and I still had a ways to go before I was past it so due, it hadn’t been that long.

Super slow jogging from the start.

After that was 30 seconds walking, 1 minute running, and 6 heel lifts repeated 8 times. First interval set where the walking didn’t feel long enough for me to really feel fully ‘recovered’ from the running. My last 3 sets of running intervals were the most pathetic “jogging” attempts.

Then it was a 10 minute free form run. Though the first 15-30 seconds of the run was spent just standing/dancing because it started when I was waiting for traffic to clear to cross the street. Other than that I managed to run the 10 minutes, albeit very, very slowly. I was about 8 minutes in when my calves and side were cramping up and my feet hurting, but I kept going. Also came close to injuring myself when I didn’t notice a whole on the ground and rolled my ankle- somehow managed to not injure it though.

Bad timing for when it stopped though, because I ended right in front of Tim Horton’s/Cold Stone, which smelled so good. Walked a little bit away before I started stretching. Still really want some Cold Stone, mmm.

After that was another 10 minute free form run, which was even slower, but still managed it barely. The hardest part through the last 10 minutes was trying to ignore the blisters forming on my feet :-\ I definitely need to get new vibrams. I also definitely am currently too broke for new vibrams though. So, for now, I’ll just need to deal with the blisters from them.

So I wanted to do a workout today, but was having trouble deciding if I should do a lifting workout, or run. Really, I actually wanted to run (weird), but I felt like I needed to get in a lifting workout.

So I decided to go ahead and do both! Why not, since I’m avoiding being actually productive tonight anyways. I do like using workouts as a means of coping with things falling to shit. Everything else is total crap in my life, but I can feel like I got something done if I at least get in a workout!

Of course doing both meant I did just a really short and quick bench press workout. Then 10 minutes stretching, then finding some running clothes to change into, then headed out.

I was actually feeling excited to get out for a run… right up until I stepped out my front door. Really hot, ridiculously high humidity and fog. But, I was planning to go for a run, I got dressed for it and this sports bra is annoying to get on or off, so I’m going to do my run dammit.

5 minute warm up walk followed by 5 minute super slow jog. Calves were cramping a bit at the end again, but not as bad as last time. Then walking intervals.

This is one of those storylines where I am just like FUCK YOU ABEL TOWNSHIP! I’m still training to be a runner, and clearly not very good at this yet, and what do they have me do today? Oh, let’s go be zombie bait!

Which also makes me realize that I may not be a good person to have around in the case of a real zombie apocalypse, lol, because I am not thrilled with being the person luring a hoard of zombies away from someone else. Though I think I have some other strengths, like the stockpile of canned foods I have- those would probably come in handy.

Walking intervals (slow walking then fast walking) were when I was trying to get the zombies to notice me. Running intervals (running then walking) were used after the zombies noticed me to get them to chase, staying far enough ahead to be safe, slowing down to not get too far ahead that they stopped following.

Based on the storyline the 15 minute free form run then comes when the zombies are successfully lured far enough away for runner 6 to get back to the base, and the free form run is running back to the base, hopefully losing the zombies in the process.

I was not feeling great about this, and pretty miserable in the heat and humidity. But still I kept running (15 minute free form run, again, follows immediately after a 30 second run interval). I like to keep my phone in my hand during the free form run so I can see how far in I am. I don’t look constantly because then it seems like longer, but I like to check in now and then. So I’m running and feeling not great but not terrible, I can do this… I’ve feeling a bit sore, probably a good 5 minutes in now, so I look at my time on my phone- 1 minute into the free form run. So that was a little demoralizing.

But I kept going. Was not loving the music this time but whatever, tried to get into it. and just kept going. And in the end did the whole 15 minutes (slightly more actually) running! Didn’t slow to walk even once, though this meant I ran back and forth a bit by the street crossing to avoid having to stop and wait for traffic to clear to cross. It was a little after 15 minutes by my count that I got the game notification that my free form run was done, and i slowed to a walk, a few blocks from home again so I got my cool down walk in.

While walking back home I did start wondering though if running will ever feel easy to me. I mean, in theory you keep doing something enough and it gets easier, with time you run further or faster (to use running as the example) in order for it to still feel challenging, right? With time the same distance and speed should start to get really easy. Yet I find myself often skeptical of this. For those who haven’t read all my running blog posts, I restarted this summer with the Zombies 5K again, which I’ve done before, and couch to 5K a few times before this. I’ve never been a good runner, but in the past I had built up to running several miles at a time. But I gotta say, I don’t feel like it ever really got easier. I feel like I’m still always a minute in like “oh my god is this over yet!?”

On the other hand though, I got home and after stretching but before writing this I checked my pace for the run and unsurprisingly it was faster than my last run, but I’ve also been faster than I used to be at all! Now, I’ve always tracked my time, distance, and pace to include warm up and cool down walks. But still, even with all the walking, including slow walking, I did in this workout, my pace is faster than it used to be when I would do a short warm up walk, run a few miles, and then a short cool down walk. Of course this mainly just goes to show how incredibly slow I have always been because my pace this time was only a bit under 17 minutes per mile.

Next up is sprints and then “week” 5. Zombies 5K is an interesting layout. It’s not the simple progression of longer intervals that the coolrunning couch to 5K is. The one thing I’ve like about the Zombies 5K though is the longer free form runs from the start because they give you a chance to push yourself. Of course as if goes on more of your run is free form and it really only works if you are running them. But then they add in a lot of other stuff. Like I don’t really know what the point of the slow and fast walking intervals during week 4 were, though I’m hardly one to argue about it because I enjoy walking lol. Week 5 will have heel lifts again but is basically just a mix of free form runs and running intervals. But then week 6 is interesting because a fair bit of it is just half squats and stretching.

My running outfit tonight, mismatched injinji socks, some selfies during the walking intervals, and stretching with Blake after the run.

Finally back out for this run. I’ve been doing a fair bit of walking the past week in shoes that aren’t great for walking any real distance in. I can’t seem to walk more than a quarter of a mile in any shoes except my vibrams without ending up with blisters. Since I either didn’t want to or couldn’t wear my vibrams for most of the walking this past week- my feet have been covered in blisters, so I’ve been waiting for them to mostly heal before I did another run. Today they seemed mostly all healed up so time for a run it was 🙂

One day I will be able to just head out for a run like a “normal” person I’m sure, lol, that day was not today though!

My pre-run routine today started with soaking my feet in warm water with epsom salt and tea tree oil, washed my feet, dried them well, and then put on my kt tape. The main point was putting on my kt tape, but the rest was to try to help keep the tape on as long as possible.

After that was 13 minutes of stretching, then I headed out for the run.

It didn’t go well today. Started the 5 minute warm up walk and already was not feeling good about it! Just did squats yesterday, and my legs were sore and just walking felt difficult.

It didn’t feel very hot when I first started out, but- oh god the humidity! Have I mentioned how much I do not like heat and high humidity?

So then was the 5 minute free form run. I feel like I’ve been getting better with figuring out good music for runs, maybe… 5 minute free form run ended up being to Country Grammar which today seemed like a good fit and I got into the song as I was running. (Though on the other hand sometimes I hate running to this song. I can’t really mouth the lyrics in certain parts because at one part pretty much ever other word is the n-word, and that’s awkward for me.)

Running felt difficult but not too bad until I finished the 5 minutes and slowed to a stop. It wasn’t until then that all the sudden I felt my calves cramping up terribly. I was barely able to move at all at that point and my walking better resembled a shambling zombie than a Abel Township runner. I kept stopping here and there to stretch but no amount of stretching seemed to do a thing to help with the cramping feeling.

One fun thing about Week 4 Run 2 in the Zombies 5K though is that Dr. Myers doesn’t show up until about halfway through so for the first half of it Sam does the drills with you and actually goes out with you, and has a nice chat throughout. Though it’s funny because he tries to start taking during the 5 minute free form run and is winded and says he will wait for the walking part. It’s funny how sometimes it can feel like you are with someone, because I’m just like “good idea Sam, because I really can’t be trying to focus on a conversation with you right now!”

As I continued the fast walk slow walk intervals the cramping started to let up a little bit but not entirely. I also started feeling really nauseous, starting shaking, and feeling dizzy. So that’s not great.

Then time for 30 second running intervals. Nothing special about those. They were not really difficult, but didn’t feel easy either due to all the previously mentioned intervals.

Sometime during that point I crossed over at the last crossover (same street as my last run) this time, and headed back toward my house on the opposite side of the street. Remembered not to go as far down this time.

Again went right from a 30 second run interval into the 15 minute free form run. I was not feeling that, so I decided to walk the first minute of the free form run. After that I picked up to a slow run for a minute. One thing with the runs I was doing this time was trying to run in time with the music. Which meant running faster but it also kind of felt better to do that.

Still after just a minute of jogging, I slowed back to a walk for a little bit. The next few minutes I spent jogging maybe 30 seconds, then walking a few seconds (maybe 10 seconds)- neither lasted long, but I was definitely jogging more than running. That didn’t last though. The air felt so friggin heavy and I started to feel like I was suffocating from it, and thinking about that I started to have a bit of a panic attack. I walked for a bit until I calmed down, then would try to jog but it was more walking with a few seconds of slow jogging interspersed in there.

But I also tried telling myself that was ok. That if I even just walk the 15 minutes that’s ok, not every run goes well, and if this goes badly it’s just one run and doesn’t mean much. Honestly telling myself things like this does help! I feel better. I certainly feel better than beating myself up mentally because I didn’t do as well as I planned.

Then about 10 minutes into the free form “run” Fight Song by Rachel Platten came one, which i’ve been a bit in love with since I first heard it not long ago, I was feeling a bit better combined with a song that I liked I decided to run again. I picked up to a slow run, and was mouthing the song as I went and feeling good. So I told myself that I would run for the rest of this song at least and just focus on the song. That worked and I was feeling ok by the end of it, so I kept running. Next up was Move It like This by Baha Men so I did a little bit of a dance like run for that song, trying to focus on the song. Made it through that song as well, and I don’t remember what was next but there was just a few minutes left to the 15 by that point so I kept going. Actually worked out pretty well, the 15 minute free form run ended right at a street crossing where I stopped waited for a car to pass and then crossed back over. I was only a few blocks from my house fora nice little cool down walk.

Got home, felt so good to get inside my house with my AC on. Did some stretching and foam rolling and now posting this. Feels like it didn’t take as long total today, but really wasn’t much difference in time I don’t think. I started pre-run stretching around 1:30am and finished post-run stretching and foam rolling around 4:30am. Going to try to get up and make some food after I post.

It wasn’t a good run overall, but in the end I’m feeling pretty good about it anyways. Still sooo sore though, lol.

It’s been forever since my last run! I’ve been putting this “week” of runs off because they are so much longer!

We already know that I have a weird things about not wanting to run during the day. So trying to find time, after dark, when I have the time and energy to spend several hours on a workout. Obviously the actual run is not that long- according to the brief synopsis on the app it’s scheduled to be 50 minutes long. But there is clearly a lot more involved than just the run, and it did indeed take me several hours to complete everything today.

1AM: Pre-Run

I went to my basement to start some pre-run yoga right about 1 am. Of course that wasn’t an immediate start, rather I spent a few minutes looking around for a video to follow, since I wanted to follow a video this time. I found a yoga video that said it was for runners that I’ve done before but not recently so I didn’t remember it well. So I went ahead with that. Did about 25 minutes of yoga- though the last couple minutes I stopped following the video and did my own thing as the guy on the video was repeating a lot of the same poses as before that I felt were not really the type of stuff I needed pre-run whereas I hadn’t felt a good stretch in areas I felt I did need some stretching in pre-run. During the yoga I had a terrible migraine starting, but did not feel like calling quits on the run.

Of course it’s not like I was immediately out the door after that, I did my yoga barefoot so I still needed to put on my vibrams shoes, I took some alieve and exedrin migraine to try to stop the migraine (all out of my prescription medication) made sure I used the bathroom this time, then decided i really wanted to change clothes before my run, I was worried my pants were too loose and would be falling down the whole run and I was wearing a black t-shirt with black pants, and thought a shirt even a bit brighter would be safer in terms of visibility running at night.

I used the bathroom again to be safe because I was about to be nearly an hour walking/running without a bathroom near by and having to pee that whole time would not be fun. Then I grabbed my spibelt, my keys, and headphones, said goodbye to Blake and assured him I would not be gone long as he gave me his usual “why are you leaving me!?!?!?!” sad kitty face. After locking the door I put my keys in the spibelt and start up the app. By this point in time it was somehow 2am already, apparently I spent more time digging around for a new shirt than I thought.

2AM Run

I headed off on my 5 minute warm up walk. Spent a good portion of that on my phone as it was raining just slightly but I was worried about ended up with severe weather while I was not close to home. Everything I could find indicated there were no severe weather warnings for the area, though it also said the chance of rain was very, very low, and yet it was just barely raining. Luckily it never got any worse than that. I would not want to run in heavy rain, but I wasn’t too worried about rain. It’s being out walking/running miles from home if a thunderstorm started or worse, there was a tornado warning, that concerns me.

The layout for the run just says a 5 minute run, implying it’s expected you run the whole thing, but when Dr. Myers announces it she clearly says that it is a free-form run- meaning walk or run whatever amount you feel comfortable. Of course I’ve been doing these 5 minute free runs awhile now so of course I was going to run the whole 5 minutes. 5 minutes went by much faster this time than before, though I felt like just those 5 minutes took all my energy by the end of it, and my feet were hurting. I had been planning to go for a run a few days back and had taped my feet, but then realized that I needed to be to bed earlier than I would be able to if I tried to get in a run that night. The tape made it until today before peeling off, and I have only a few strips left and no money for anymore, so I decided not to retape for my run. Sometimes I suspect it’s really nothing more than a placebo effect, but I swear I notice such a huge difference between with kinesio-tape and without.

Next up was fast and slow walking intervals. Meant to have knee lifts but I skip those as I just don’t feel like doing them on a major street. While there are fewer people driving or walking around so late at night, there still are always some cars and people around. Most of the time I replaced the knee lifts with stopping to stretch my feet a bit to help with the pain.

After the walking intervals were 30 second running intervals. Which felt weird to do after having previous done longer running intervals. And these weren’t meant to be sprints so I wasn’t going all out the way I would with sprints. On the other hand I used them to focus a bit more on form. I read not long ago, I think on a fit is a feminist issue blog post (btw, great blog, you should check it out if you haven’t), about chi running and I’ve been trying to incorporate some of the stuff I read about it. One of the main things that made me interested in chi running when I read about it was the fact that it promotes a midfoot strike, which I had already been using as that also tends to work best with barefoot (or “barefoot” with vibrams 5 finger shoes as I use) running. Mainly I’ve been working on the leaning forward aspect, where you are supposed to basically be working with gravity when running by leaning forward, adjusting the lean based on speed. What I do is obviously not totally chi running, certainly not correct as I’m basing this all off of a few online articles, but still I find the elements I’ve been able to add from it feel more natural for me.

Now this run I did all along a main road, no side streets today. That combined with a longer run meant i went way further down the road than I ever have before (by foot). Knowing the run would be approximately an hour ish, I figured I should cross over and head back around 30ish minutes in. So around 25 minutes in I decided next crossing I will cross over the street and head back on the other side. Turns out, there aren’t anymore crossings that far down! So I’m going, and going, until I’ve crossed into the next city over already and I could see the freeway up ahead where the road splits, and there isn’t a crossover until I get up there, and i’m certainly not planning to go that far. At that point I decide to just cross where I’m at, already into the 15 minute free form run by the this point, and over 32 minutes in. Of course after crossing there I realized I could have just turned around and ran back on the same side of the street, lol. I have been in the habit of crossing and running back on the other side but there is no reason I have to! Oh well.

So at about 32 minutes the free form run started. I basically did the same for this run as I did with the last Zombies 5K run- I can’t say I ran the whole 15 minutes, but I only slowed to a walk/stop for a few seconds at a time, and only a few times at that. I saw stop because 8 minutes in I was getting a cramp in my side and stopped for just a few seconds to stretch a little, which just about got rid of the cramp entirely. This time though my struggle with the run was not at all boredom. Rather I was tired, out of breath, and my heart was pounding. Several health factors at play with that, though certainly my recent anxiety is a big factor. The job hunt is not going well, summer is nearly over and somehow I still have not found a real job, I have about $5 at the moment and that’s it. No idea what I am going to do about anything financially at the moment other than continue crossing my fingers that some job applications will pan out. I’m constantly stressed out completely over this. Anxiety tends to raise my heart rate, combined with running, and well, that should be obvious.

My mantra through the free form run though was that I am capable of more than I think I am. I kept telling myself that and every time I felt like that was all the energy I had in me and I couldn’t run anymore, I just told myself that was not all I could do and I could indeed keep going. And it worked out!

Though I’ve found that the Zombies 5K app does not always have it’s math right. Like I said, I started the free form run (immediately following a 30 second run interval) around 32 minutes in. At 37 minutes Dr. Meyers told me it had been 5 minutes, added up. And yet, I think the notification was at 45 minutes in that there were still 3 more minutes to go. Then 47 minutes in came and went with no notification that the 15 minutes was up. 48 minutes in came and went without notification. A little after 48 minutes in I slowed to a walk. It wasn’t for another minute- after 49 minutes in, that Dr. Meyers said the 15 minutes was up. But by my count I had already ran (for the most part) over 16 minutes though, so I don’t feel bad about slowing to a walk early.

Of course I was still a ways from home though. As much as I feel like I should better plan my runs to end right near home, and a few times I’ve been close and just ran back and forth on my block until the end of the run, I actually prefer a cool down walk at the end, which the program does not have built in. Now a 20ish minute walk is way overkill for that, but certainly is nice to get a cool down walk in at the end. Even though I still do yoga/stretching and foam rolling when I get home, it’s not the same and still is better (imo) to do a cool down walk before that.

So it was after 3am by the time I got home.

3:10AM Post-Run

I then got home, kicked off my shoes, had to use the bathroom again, and then headed back to my basement. Before I started stretching i ended up massaging my feet a bit because they needed it. Then 12 minutes of stretching, and 6 minutes of foam rolling. By the time I was done it was after 3:30am. So if we count only to here all in all from when I headed downstairs for pre-run yoga, until I was heading back up after post-run stretching and foam rolling, the whole workout really took up 2 and a half hours.

Though after that I felt like I needed a shower, but then changed my mind and decided an epsom salt bath might be better. which meant first cleaning my bathtub (I always clean it before a bath), then had my bath. By the end of that it was about 4:30am. Obviously a bath after is not necessary, but it’s certainly not unrelated, I took an epsom salt bath because I knew it would help sooth my muscles and feet from the run, it’s not like this would have been a typical part of my night if I hadn’t done some workout.

The I went to get something to eat- made a protein shake. And then to my computer to compose this blog post. And now it’s almost 6am. All in all, took up pretty much my whole night!

EDIT: I spent a lot of time in this post talking about all the things that make an approximately 1 hour run a lot longer. I guess I should explain a bit that part of this was inspired by something I read awhile back, though I can’t find where it was, where someone was talking about that common “fitsportation” message that a 1 hour workout is only 4% of your day, so “no excuses”. The author talked about how that a 1 hour workout isn’t just the 1 hour you spend working out. They mentioned packing a gym bag, driving to the gym, changing, driving home. Of course there are all the other aspects too like, even if it is only 4% of your day that doesn’t always mean there is room for it within all the other things we have to fit into a day. Or that what reasons a person has for working out or not any day is none of your damn business. Still, I thought about this in terms of this run today. The run itself may only be an hour, but add in the yoga before, stretching and foam rolling after, not to mention all the little mundane things that take up some times, and it adds up to a lot more than just the hour ish I spend on my run.

Body Image While Running

Oh, one more issue, from my run, I run past a lot of buildings with glass which crudely reflects my image as I run past. For a long time whenever I would catch my reflection in them and I would try not to look and it would bring my mood down while running as I see my fat reflection running super slow, and all the stereotypes associated with that would flood my head. I noticed today that I didn’t mind my reflection so much today, and was not making any attempts to avoid it. So, yay for that, lol 🙂

So today was sprints. Same layout as I’ve been using: 5 minute warm up walk, *30 second springt, 2 minute walk* repeat 6 times, 5 minute cool down walk (or longer depending how long it takes me to get back to my house). I might switch over to distance based sprints though. I am looking forward to an interval function on zombies run- though I can’t get the main app to download on my phone at the moment :-\ Keeps telling me I don’t have enough space on the phone. No idea why I should not have space though.

Spent awhile fooling around with that on my phone so actually ended up with another daylight run, sort of. By the time I got out it was just starting to get light out.

Sprints weren’t particularly interesting in any way. Though I’ve noticed my vibrams are starting to fall apart. Going to need to new ones soon. Too many things I need to buy, and yet I have no money to buy any of those things. Being broke sucks.

Not sure it might be related to that but I also have a bunch of blisters from sprints today 😦

This past week has been a bit cardio heavy for me, lol. Since it was a deload week I added some box jumps to my first lifting workout, then an evil 8 complex at the end of my second (combined deloads into 2 instead of 4 workout), in addition obviously to my last run and these sprints. All of these being interval work (last run less so than the rest though). I like doing these with my deloads, since I don’t want to do much in terms of heavy lifting since the point of a deload is a rest from that, but I still want to feel like I got in a decent workout. A complex or some form of HIIT is a nice way to feel like I got a workout that doesn’t involve heavy lifting.

Next up, “week 4” of zombies 5K. Runs get longer and a bit more complicated.

Finally got in another run, and had to break my normal running rule (no daytime running) to do it. I still hate running during the day time. It’s so bright. It’s hotter out and I get dehydrated faster. And there are so many more people out, ugh.

I got a different brand of kinesiology tape- I’d heard good things about KT tape and I was actually interested in trying the pre-cut strips. I’m not sure what I think though.

I forgot to mention on my last run but I tried last run using kinesiology tape on my calves. And given I had less calf pain last run, although I immediately thought it was stretching that made the difference, I’m not sure if the tape helped too. So I did tape on my calves again. Not sure it I have it too wide compared to the guide I followed, it looks wider, but my calves are also wider so hard to say.

Like my last run I started out with stretching, started with 10 minutes of stretching yoga before the run. I feel like I probably should have done more though. Blake joined me for stretching too! lol. He made it about 2 minutes in before he decided stretching is boring and went to chase imaginary things around the basement (since I started painting my office, I’ve had crap from my office all over my living room, so the only place where I have room for yoga is my basement.)

This is also the second run through where I started the 5 minute free form run and suddenly realized I have to pee :-\ Last time I pushed through the rest of the run, this time though I decided to circle back to my house. Which btw this run went like Run 1 of this grouping with no walking break between the 5 minute run and the first 1 minute interval run. I didn’t get back to my house until after the second 1 minute run interval (i didn’t just turn around and go straight back to my house, lol), but then I paused and took a short break to use the bathroom, tried to switch to my sunglasses but they are plastic and not as tight fitting as my normal glasses, combined with sweat meant they did not want to stay on my head. Then back out for 3 more intervals, then an 8 minute free form run. I didn’t run the whole time this time, though most of it. I slowed to a walk for a few seconds a few times, but no more than that. 2 minutes stretching, and another 8 minute free form run- same as the first, slowed to walk for a few seconds a few times. Literally would just take a few steps before I went back to my slow jogging. I kept trying to focus on how good it would feel when I was done, even though I felt completely miserable during the run. Though I don’t feel as good after this time, lol.

I don’t get why I hate running as much as I do. I mean, I get that I often prefer things that involve bursts and rests- lifting and sprints, but the thing is, I also like walking. I was thinking during this run how I don’t understand how people run marathons! Over 26 miles, of just running the whole time? That sounds so boring! I get bored running for a few minutes! But it makes no sense why I find running so mind numbingly boring, but walking- I could easily walk for hours and hours no problem. Walking helps me clear my mind, it’s almost meditative in a way. I wish I could feel the same way about running, but it just doesn’t work the same way with running for some reason.

Finished after my run with 10 minutes of yoga stretching and then 5 minutes of foam rolling.

I really need to make a running playlist. I have few playlists on my phone right now. I didn’t feel like listening to all rent music during the run, and the other playlist is fairly short so I would end up listening to the same handful of songs over and over. So I decided to go with just all the music on my phone. Which isn’t really great without control over skipping songs because I’m a bit of a digital music hoarder- I hate deleting music, so I have all this music on my phone that I downloaded back in middle school and high school that I don’t listen to but it’s still there.

Which meant that my run started with two Eminem tracks. The first was Till I Collapse, which I actually downloaded only a year ago. The chorus is great workout music “Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out/Till my legs give out, can’t shut my mouth”… mainly I focus on the till my legs give out part, lol. Totally not what it’s actually about but that little part right there makes me feel like “hell yeah, I’m going to keep running till my legs give out!!” The rest of the song I don’t really like. I don’t remember what the other song was even. A

After Eminem was Corporate Avenger. I like Corporate Avenger still, but songs about genocide are still not really great running music to me.

None of that was as bad though until what is in my phone as 12 Days of Christmas Punk by the Sex Pistols. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this song. And it was the most painful thing to listen to while running.

And finished the run with Spice Girls (there were other songs mixed in throughout as well of course, but they just weren’t memorable.)

As for the run itself, after the 5 minute warmup walk was a 5 minute free form run. I slowly jogged for the full 5 minutes. Though after the first minute my legs started to really hurt but I pushed through because 5 minutes is short enough to push through pain. Did not realize that there is no walking interval (break) between the end of the free form run and the first run interval though, which meant I slowed to a walk just long enough for Dr. Myers to tell me I did well on the free form run and now it’s time to do my first 1 minute run. That first run interval was the hardest! So then I did the 1 minute run, 1 minute walk intervals. There were supposed to be knee lifts in there but I don’t want to do knee lifts on the street, so instead I either walked or stretched. The stretching helped the pain in my calves from running. I remembered that week 3 started with a free form run, then had 1 minute run, 1 minute walk intervals, then finished with a free form run. I however blocked out that it ended with an 8 minute freeform run, 2 minutes stretching, and then another 8 minute free form run. Was not up for that much running. I started the first 8 minute free form run at a slow job then slowed for a walk. Decided I would walk the rest of the first 3 minutes, run 3 minutes and then walk the last 2, which is the same thing I did for the second 8 minute free form run.

Came home, stretched and did some foam rolling. I’ve already been working on stretching more again, after I started slacking off on my stretching. Next run I need to remember to do a yoga warmup before I head out and see if stretching first helps.

This was the first time I was out for a run this summer and the mosquitoes actually seemed to be a problem.

Also I saw what looked like a huge cockroach crawling on the sidewalk, ewww!

Also saw a dead mouse on the sidewalk 😦 That one was sad. I like mice and rats. I don’t want to live with them, but they are cute and I hate seeing them dead.

So I have been running in vibrams for… years now. The black and grey pair in the photo are bikilas and were my first pair of vibrams. They lasted me several years but the bottoms were wearing away so 8 months back I got the grey and pink ones which are seeyas ls. I mention in my last running post that my feet were hurting making it hard to run any distance at all. Specifically it was my arches that hurt. So I started wondering if I should get a more supportive running show (eventually down the line, one day when I have money), but then ended up in my looking coming across the bikilas again. And the description for them said they were specifically meant for running with a bit more heel cushioning and more arch support than most vibrams. I never got rid of my old bikilas, so this run I decided to wear them to compare. I seemed to have a little bit less arch pain this time though still some. Of course given how worn out the shoes are who knows how much can be gathered from that.

Still I’m not sure what the right solution for shoes is. I love the vibrams for the most part and I HATE those bulky stabilizing shoes (which is what I found a lot of recommendation for. ugh, no!) But not infrequently I feel like I need just a little bit more arch support than I get in my current vibrams.

Of course I have no money for new shoes at the moment anyways, so it’s not like they will be getting replaced anytime soon one way or the other.

So week 2 was a 10 minute warm up walk, *30 seconds jogging, 5 heel lifts, 1 minute walking*, repeat * 5 times, and a 10 minute “free form run”. Looking at the timing on my phone I discovered the 10 minute warm up walk definitely isn’t just 10 minutes. They start with a little intro talk which I always walk during before they announce the start of the 10 minute warm up walk, and I checked today for sure that it starts counting this time but it doesn’t count toward the 10 minute warm up, so that added a minute, then it was about another minute between when the warmup walk was announced to be over and Dr. Meyers tells you to start your first 30 second jog, so it is quite a long warmup! For my free form run this time I did 1 minute jogging with 1 minute walking intervals the whole time.

Though I had a bit of a scare when I got back to my house, as I approached my house a dark grey cat ran from my porch- the same color as my cat, Blake. I was freaked out he had somehow snuck outside with me and I didn’t notice. I tried running after but the cat kept running from me. So I went inside to check if Blake was inside, and sure enough he ran to great me at the door (who says that is a dog only trait?). Thank goodness! Had me worried.

Today was actually quite an active day for me. Started with deadlifts early in the morning followed by 35 minutes of yoga, then went to sleep, Blake woke me up after just a few hours and it wasn’t that late so I went out and mowed my lawn and did some other yardwork for awhile, came back inside, took a shower, rested a bit, then got dressed and headed out for my run, then 20 minute post run yoga cool down. Now a big dinner and then going to sleep soon.

I’ve been slacking on my yoga recently so need to start doing this much (or more) yoga more often again.

So realized it had been several days since I last ran. I have been totally losing track of the days being unemployed :-\ My sleep is completely random and while it’s not like I’m just doing nothing, most of what I do is nothing that has to be done at certain times making it difficult to keep track of what day it is. I do a little work which is tuesday nights right now, then I volunteer wednesday afternoons…. and that is really all in my life that is day/time specific.

So I decided to just head out in some yoga pants I was wearing instead of bothering to change into my running pants or capris. I figured they should be ok, and afterall the jogging intervals right now are only 30 seconds. And I was right on that last part but still I had to keep adjusting them because the waistband keeps sliding down. Not a problem for me today but it got me annoyed thinking of people I’ve heard say that it shouldn’t be a problem that it can be hard to find good workout clothes in plus sizes because you don’t need any special clothes to workout. Ugh. No. Actually clothing does make a significant difference! It should be common sense that a person is less likely to want to stick with working out regularly if they don’t have clothing that is really comfortable for the activity they are doing.

One reason I prefer to run when it’s dark is definitely that there are fewer people out. Passed a guy and awkwardly said hi. I’ve heard a lot of runners talk about how awesome running and runners are because of friendly hi’s when you pass another runner. :-\ That sounds nice in theory, but no, not for me. When I’m running and I have headphones in listening to zombies run or music I don’t want to exchange hi’s with someone else.

The run itself went ok. One thing I’m not a huge fan of with the zombies 5k layout is that you start (at least in the beginning) with a 10 minute warmup walk, which feels way longer than necessary. During the warm up walk I find myself constantly thinking “ok already, is it time to run yet?” 5 minutes seems to be more typical for a warm up walk time, so why not 5 minutes? Also, the further into the 5K the more storyline you seem to get with the running drills, which is nice, but also a bit confusing when I’m not sure what section something is because it’s not introduced as part of the layout. For example this run Dr. Myers tells you to run (RUN!) after Sam, which I still don’t know if that was supposed to be a 30 sec run interval, except I think it went longer. But it was before she said it was the free form run time. I still don’t know which it was and it’s a little frustrating in a way.

My feet were really hurting while running (but not so much walking) today so I didn’t try to run any significant length during the free form but instead did 30 seconds-2 minutes of slow (soo slow) jogging with 30 seconds-1 minute of walking in between.

Nothing special. Despite being exhausted I felt more into it this time than my last run.